Name of the Goths

[Ingemar Nordgren]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "faltin2001" <d.faltin at ...> wrote:
>
> --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Ingemar Nordgren" <ingemar@> 
> wrote:
> >
> > 
> > Hi Dirk,
> > 
> > Could you demonstrate a big flowing stream that explains the island
> > name of Gutland/Gotland or Eastern Gautland?
> 
> 
> 
> Hi Ingemar,
> 
> there is also no 'big flowing stream' at Gutinge (Göttingen) or villa 
> Gotaha (Gotha). Apparently, all that is neede is 'a flowing water'. 
> In fact, the modern German word Gosse refers to a small stream of 
> water, but I think that Old Saxon Guta and Eastfalian Göte refers 
> only to flowing water. 
> 
> My question to you is what evidence is there that the root of the 
> name Goths, i.e. *geutan has to refer to the flowing of semen, rather 
> than the flowing of water?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Dirk

Hi Dirk,

Gießen just means 'pour' and hence it can be applied to everything
that is  liquid or semiliquid. This includes of course water and there
are several examples that gjuta and gjöt et c. is used to mouths of
streams, rapid rivers et c. But it also includes e.g. flow of semen
and specially poetical and imaginary the flow of creatures from a
creators womb which might be the real sense in this case. Maybe John's
'juice'and 'sacrifice' that he suggested in Germanic-L is visionary?
Remember that Dumezil regards Óðinn as twin gendered and by all
probability Gaut was his progenitor in the North.'Gjuta' can also be
understood as casting of melt metal in forms and some have indeed
assumed the name refers to the people being able to cast iron.
Linguistically there is no way to prove or counterprove any of those
meanings. Since most, even all, peoples are bound to be dependent of
access to water and normally allways lived by water, there is no sense
at all to call just some single peoples after water. In this case all
Gothic peoples have name after their divine progenitor Gaut, but he is
no special water divinity but instead there are numerous specialised
water deities spread all over Europe and Germania and worshipped by
all Germanics and as well by the Celts et c. The name is clearly
teophoric! Later Óðinn becomes Óðinn-gaut and he as well is by no
means specially connected with flowing water.

Best
Ingemar







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